Yes, we’re clickbaiting Japan. No, this isn’t some white guy misinterpreting a Japanese concept. It’s an MBA student correctly interpreting a business concept!
What Is Poka-Yoke?
Poka Yoke is a Japanese concept all about mistake-proofing a process. It comes from the term ポカを避ける (poka wo yokeru), where “poka” means “error” and “yokeru” means “avoid.” Abbreviated? Poka-yoke. Fun fact, it was also known as baka-yoke, or “fool-proofing.”
Poka-yoke was coined in the 1960s by Japanese industrial engineer Shigeo Shingo in the 1960s, and a major point of it is to make inevitable human errors less inevitable through prevention at the source.
Some examples of poka-yoke include handrails on stairs to prevent falling, the need to brake before switching your car out of park, seals on medicine to prevent tampering, or even checklists to make sure every step of a process is done correctly and in order.
Business Application – Total Quality Management
Poka-yoke is a popular way of thinking in total quality management, where the goal, as the name suggests, is to maximize the quality of your business by managing the processes of the business.
In business, poka-yoke helps to prevent mistakes from happening, and this can range from steps in manufacturing, supply chain, or even at the consumer-level with product design. And the whole concept of bulletproofing a design can even apply outside of business, too!
Can you tell I’m studying an MBA? Is it just me? Gosh, even when going on dates, I’m using terms like “return on investment” when flirting. Send help.
Anyways, that is the gist of poka-yoke: mistake-proofing a process or product.
Personal Application – Total Quality Life
If poka-yoke processes in business, service, and manufacturing are about eliminating the chance to make mistakes, how can you do the same in your own life?
This reminds me a lot of the ideas in Atomic Habits by James Clear, where one major lesson is to design your space to make bad habits more difficult to do and good habits easier.
For example, unplug the TV and put the remote away when you’re not watching it, wear your gym clothes to bed to be ready for an AM workout, or delete apps from your phone you spend too much time on. That said, for some people, especially if you’re neurodivergent, creating obstacles can just make these things take more time and have the opposite intended effect—therefore only apply what actually works for you!
Lets think of a few ways to add guard rails to your life to help ensure success while minimizing mistakes!
Designing Your Phone For Success
I use a couple apps on my phone to limit my phone usage without total restriction or app deletion. First, I use blank spaces and have a home screen that is exclusively widgets. It takes a bit to set up, but it makes your homescreen clean and focused on both Android and iOS.
Another app I appreciate as a personal poka-yoke is called One Sec, which runs an automation each time you open certain apps. It forces you to pause and take a breath before opening these apps and can prevent a lot of mindless app browsing on things like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.
That said, if my intention is to open these apps and I want to quickly shoot an Instagram story or something, it can be a bit annoying. However, I’ll take a small annoyance for being more generally present. One Sec also works on desktop, though I’ve only tested it on Safari. One Sec is not free, but it’s a low one-time fee, which can be waived if you send the developer a compelling reason within the app. Based.
Otherwise, I’d recommend deleting apps you really want to use less and setting up One Sec for apps you still want to have while using less.
Designing Your Space
Another concept in operations management is layout design—how can you design a space for maximum efficiency, or in this case, to minimize errors? This usually applies to things like how Chipotle can assemble a custom-to-order burrito in seconds or a factory can produce goods as quickly as possible, but how can you arrange your own space for success?
For example, instead of leaving your running shoes in a closet, leave them by your door to reduce friction to starting a run. You could also charge your phone at least out of arm’s reach when in bed so you don’t doomscroll for hours before sleeping—advice I especially should follow. Or, you could make a checklist of habits you want to do every day so you don’t forget any.
Otherwise, conceptually, how can you arrange your room, furniture, stuff, whatever to minimize friction from the things you want to do? And how can you add friction against the things you want to do less?
I don’t have much say in this personally, as of now, since I only really control the bedroom I live in and work from, but within my limited space, I have small things set up:
- having my exercise shoes by my weights and by the door
- generally leaving my workout clothes out the night before
- attempting to have a clear desk most of the time
- closing most of my browser tabs before closing my laptop, and more.
Is Poka-Yoke Cultural Appropriation?
A major pet peeve of mine is when, usually white or otherwise non-Japanese, YouTubers and writers mystify Japan and make videos or write books like “Ikiru: The Japanese Concept of Living that Will Change Your Life” when 生きる(ikiru) is literally just a verb for “to live.”
Is poka-yoke and its emphasis in business education cultural appropriation? I’m not the right person to answer the question. However, it does truly have Japanese origins, and I googled it in Japanese and saw Japanese business articles talking about it. Moreover, seeing how “poka-yoke” is an abbreviation—knowing how much Japan loves its abbreviations—that added even more credence of legitimacy rather than weebs in business.
This post started during an operations class lecture, and the title emerged when I realized you can easily clickbait people with “This Japanese Concept Will Change Your Life” content—look at the obsession with things like Ikigai and Kaizen. These are useful concepts, but don’t froth at the mouth over them just because they’re Japanese in origin!
ごめんなさいけどごめんしない！(translation: sorry-not-sorry)
How Can You Mistake-Proof Your Life?
It’s impossible to be perfect, but using poka-yoke, you might be able to reduce hiccups in reaching your goals. How might you mistake-proof your life? Let me know in the comments. You gotta yoke the baka in you with poka-yoke. Why am I like this
Andy Cormier 